ARTICLES ABOUT ZAHEERA SHEIKH BY DATE - PAGE 2

MUMBAI: The security to the designated judge hearing the Best Bakery case, Abhay Tipsay, has been beefed up in view of the threats received by him through mail even as the prosecution today got a boost with two witnesses supporting it in the retrial conducted by a special court here. The jailor of Central Prison, Swati Sathe, appeared before Judge Abhay Thipsay and assured him that adequate measures had been taken in the jail to ensure safety of the 17 accused in Best Bakery case in the wake of reports of alleged threats to them from the underworld.

MUMBAI: Zaheera Sheikh, prime witness in the Best Bakery case, on Monday appeared before the trial court here amidst tight police security to give her testimony, but did not depose as the prosecution chose not to examine her. Prosecutor Manjula Rao told the designated judge Abhay Thipsay that she would examine Zaheera at the end of the trial and not at this stage. Thereafter, Zaheera left with her police escort and her lawyer Harshad Ponda assured that she would depose as and when the court summoned her. On November 3, Zaheera, in a turnaround, said before the Vadodara collector that she was being pressurised by social activist Teesta Setalvad to identify innocent persons as accused in the Mumbai court which is conducting a re-trial in the Best Bakery case.

MUMBAI: Prime witness in Best Bakery case Zaheera Sheikh did not appear before the trial court here today despite summons issued to her, but her counsel assured the judge that she would depose whenever required. This is the second time that Zaheera and her brothers have been summoned by the court. Earlier, the witnesses failed to turn up before the court on November 4 and the court had issued fresh summons. Her lawyer Harshad Ponda informed the court yesterday that Zaheera is ready to depose but urged the judge to fix a date for recording her statement.

AHMEDABAD: Casting aspersions on the 'motives' of the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government in the Best Bakery carnage, Union textile minister Shankarsinh Vaghela today demanded a CBI inquiry into the sudden volte face by Zaheera Sheikh, the star witness in the case. "There is nothing in Zaheera's turn-around that the government should be worried or happy about. But the way the Gujarat government was reacting to the episode raises serious doubts about its motives", Mr Vaghela said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: The prosecution in the Best Bakery case today requested the court to examine Yasmin Sheikh, sister-in-law of prime witness Zaheera Sheikh, expressing concern that if she (Yasmin) goes back to Vadodara during Diwali vacations, she might even go "hostile. " "(What) if she also turns out to be somewhat like Zaheera," prosecutor Manjula Rao said while requesting that the court may function for three extra days during vacations in order to complete the deposition of Yasmin. Rao said that Yasmin still lives in the Best Bakery premises and added that she was a crucial witness in the case.

AHMEDABAD: Zaheera Sheikh, the key witness in the Best Bakery case, has not yet left for Mumbai to depose before a special court in connection with the summons issued for retrial of the case, police said on Thursday. "Zaheera is still in Vadodara. She and her family members are under police protection and at a completely safe location. I am not aware of any summons issued to her," Vadodara police commissioner SK Sinha said. He added that she would be taken to Mumbai under police protection whenever it required.

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed the state's "amended" appeal filed at the supreme court's behest challenging the acquittal of 21 accused and also an application seeking their retrial. A division bench dismissed the appeal and miscellaneous applications and confirmed the acquittal order passed by the fast-track court in Vadodara on June 27 this year. The bench completed a marathon week-long hearing on arguments which began on December 19. Twelve persons were charred to death in the bakery during post-Godhra communal riots in Vadodara last year.

NEW DELHI: Another secularists vs BJP confrontation is brewing following a hostile witness' public disowning of her deposition in the court in the Best Bakery case, which had led the court to acquit all the 21 accused, and the National Human Rights Commission's decision to re-examine the documents pertaining to the case. Only yesterday Zaheera Sheikh ? one of the key witnesses of the alleged torching of 12 persons on March 1, 2002, in the Godhra aftermath ? told a press conference in Mumbai that she was forced to turned hostile after a "BJP MLA and a Congress councillor threatened the witnesses to change their testimony.